P35 MB: Gigabyte P35-DS4 or ASUS P5K-E/WiFi?

[isandu]

Hi. I'm new to this forum. I want to build a new computer and I don't know which of the two motherboards to choose: Gigabyte P35-DS4 or ASUS P5K-E/WiFi.
They're both about the same price, but I don't know which one is better. I don't plan on overcloking the FSB more than 400MHz, or maybe 450 at most. My memory sticks are GeIL Ultra 2GB 800MHz CL4

There are many revisions of the Gigabyte mb (1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 2.0). Where I live I can only find revisions 1.0 & 1.1 at the moment.

I want a board to be rock stable (even on 400-450MHz FSB), no boot (or shutdown, or wake-up from standby) issues, no bios problems etc. Does anyone have one of these two motherboards? (if so, please also specify your revision, as there may be differences between them)

If anyone could help me, I would really appreciate it.

 

[NoelS]

Originally posted by: isandu

I want a board to be rock stable (even on 400-450MHz FSB), no boot (or shutdown, or wake-up from standby) issues, no bios problems etc. Does anyone have one of these two motherboards? (if so, please also specify your revision, as there may be differences between them)

If anyone could help me, I would really appreciate it.

isandu,

Welcome to Anand forums... I just signed on recently too. Lots of good people here!

I'm in the same boat as you, getting ready to build a new rig and I am looking at the ASUS P5K-E, but not the Gigabyte. Have also been reviewing the Abit IP35Pro and the Foxconn P35A-S or Mars (not up for sale yet) boards. Have you looked at any of those? What is it about the Gigabyte that you especially like?

This looks like a good thread to make some mobo decisions...

Noel

 

[xxeonn]

I personally would go with the Gigabyte as I hear they have better quallity boards and customer service. From a technical point of view it seems that the DS4 has more features such as MATRIX RAID and more SATA port. But thaqt may be a minor difference to some people though.

 

[isandu]

Originally posted by: NoelS
isandu,

Welcome to Anand forums... I just signed on recently too. Lots of good people here!

I'm in the same boat as you, getting ready to build a new rig and I am looking at the ASUS P5K-E, but not the Gigabyte. Have also been reviewing the Abit IP35Pro and the Foxconn P35A-S or Mars (not up for sale yet) boards. Have you looked at any of those? What is it about the Gigabyte that you especially like?

This looks like a good thread to make some mobo decisions...

Noel

Thank you, it's nice to be here

Well, I was really leaning towards the Gigabyte DS4, I wanted to get that board since it first appeared. I liked it's design, it's features, the fact that it claims that it's built with more durable components, and the fact that it claims to have a better integrated sound chip than the average mainboard (although, it's still a Realtek chip...). But now, after reading many reviews about Gigabyte P35 boards, I'm not so sure anymore. This is why I'm asking. I'm curious, what is it you don't like about Gigabyte?

ABIT IP35 Pro initially had the same price as DS4 in my country, but then it got more expensive, at about the same price level as Gigabyte DQ6. So it is a little too expensive for me.

I don't know much about other options, like DFI, Foxconn, MSI, but I don't want to start searching all over the net again for user reviews and user complaints about problems.
I would get the ASUS P5K-E, but I read some bad user reviews on newegg... It's really a tought choice. As someone said, there seems to be no board with wich everyone is happy (at least, at this price level)

 

[treker]

I like Gigabyte mobo's. I just got their P35-DS4 last week to replace a P35-DS3P. The new one has some really nice features, notably the heatpipes. It is cooled by Ninja Rev A with 120mm Scythe fan. Very, very quiet. My Q6600 idles around 29-31C.
Gigabyte updates their BIOS frequently. Uses top quality parts. On the downside, their IDE connector placement is far from optimum. But I don't use any IDE drives anymore.
Coolest mobo I have ever used since Abit AW9D-MAX. But Abit BIOS seriously lacks updates, and generally do not allow undervolting which allows cooler operation. Especially with the wonderful C2D and Quads from Intel. I am running mine most of the time at 1.0V rock stable and cool.

 

[NoelS]

isandu,

I looked at the Gigabyte board more closely and it does have a lot of nice features, but I would really like to have at least one eSATA connector on the back plane. I use an eSATA bracket on my current mobo, the ASUS Commando, and I have to reboot to get the rig to recognize the eSATA drive. I like the heat pipe solution on it in preference to the shorter one on the ASUS board.

I was looking at another thread and there were some more concerns about the Gigabyte there: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2106913&enterthread=y

I'm leaning to the ASUS P5K-E because it has almost everything I want (except only 2 PCI slots vice 3): eSATAs on the back plane, upright SATA connectors on the board, a better audio system on board (ADI, not Realtek), 1066 native memory support, and pretty good tech support from ASUS (lousy web site though). BTW, I read Newegg user reviews with a grain of salt

The IP35Pro has lots of great features and excellent reviews. It's too bad it has gotten too expensive where you live. There is a $20 MIR here at Newegg that helps us bring it down to $160 USD with free shipping. Its only bad feature, in my view, is the horizontal SATA ports. I have those on my Commando mobo and they can be hard to access in a tight case. So I'm really torn between the ASUS and the Abit boards...

Noel

 

[imported_Husky55]

I have both the Abit and Asus boards. I have been using Asus for a long time, Abit was a new experience to me.

I do not have a Gigabyte MB but I do have one of their video card.

My personal experience is:

1. They are all excellent boards, however YMMV.
2. Asus is hotter, i.e. requires more wattage than Abit. But Usually Asus has more features.

If you want the name, then Asus and Gigabyte are for you. If you want performance and value then I favor Abit. Abit BIOS seems rock solid for me (P35 series).

Hope this helps. From an owner of both.

 

[NoelS]

Originally posted by: Husky55
I have both the Abit and Asus boards. I have been using Asus for a long time, Abit was a new experience to me.

I do not have a Gigabyte MB but I do have one of their video card.

My personal experience is:

1. They are all excellent boards, however YMMV.
2. Asus is hotter, i.e. requires more wattage than Abit. But Usually Asus has more features.

If you want the name, then Asus and Gigabyte are for you. If you want performance and value then I favor Abit. Abit BIOS seems rock solid for me (P35 series).

Hope this helps. From an owner of both.

Husky,

Thanks, I had the same feeling about names versus performance. Tell me, does the Abit mobo allow Intel C1E and ISTP (or whatever it's called - voltage stepping) to reduce voltages while the CPU is idling? I had been turning those off on my ASUS mobos, but from what I read on this forum, it's a good thing that should be allowed to do its thing...

Also, have you tried using 1066 memory on the Abit board? If you do,can you use it without any trouble? I have some OCZ SLI 1066 that I'd like to use with my E6850 CPU.

Noel

 

[NoelS]

Husky55,

I was just reading the sticky on motherboards by renethx and see that the Abit IP35Pro LAN is controlled by PCI and runs 20-40% slower than the PCI-E solution. Have you noticed any appreciable slowdown in communications via LAN because of this (either internet or home net)?

Noel

 

[imported_Husky55]

Most MB have the C1E and EIST features. What they do it to reduce the multiplier of the CPU and voltage of the Vcore during period when your CPU workload is NOT demanding.

There are many on this forum who turned those features OFF during OC and who think they are right.

However, I never believe in OC when NOT using or needing the POWER. So to keep my system, i.e. the CPU cool, I turned then ON in the BIOS.

In addition, I also use a program called RightMark Clock Utility (Google is your friend) to use what is called POWER on DEMAND.

I do OC my system but want to keep it as cool as possible during period when no load was being processed.

As far as memory I am running 4X1GB of Crucial Ballistix PC2 6400 in both the Abit and Asus with no problem. Their frequency is about 400-450 MHZ depending on my system. Your 1066 memory is really 266X4. So you should not have any problem. I am not familiar with OCZ memory.

 

[imported_Husky55]

Originally posted by: NoelS
Husky55,

I was just reading the sticky on motherboards by renethx and see that the Abit IP35Pro LAN is controlled by PCI and runs 20-40% slower than the PCI-E solution. Have you noticed any appreciable slowdown in communications via LAN because of this (either internet or home net)?

Noel

Again, I can only speak from my experience.

I have a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device. I noticed during transfer of large video file .VOB the Asus seems to be faster. But I am sure that is just my illusion because my NAS is rated as ethernet 100 MB/s and although the Ehternet on the Asus is Gigabit the MAX for my network is more like 50-60 MB/sec. The theoretical 100 MHz is just that, no where near the 100 MHz max. for all the network.

I do have a giga switch and CAT6E cables and connecting the computers together, my network speed is something in the range of 80-200 MHz/s , no where near the GIGA 1000 MHZ/s people are talking about.

Tomshardware,com has some data to confirm this I believe.

I used a ZyXell 2 Plus router and a Netgear Prosafe 8 port giga switch.

 

[NoelS]

Husky,

Thanks, Noel

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: NoelS
I was just reading the sticky on motherboards by renethx and see that the Abit IP35Pro LAN is controlled by PCI and runs 20-40% slower than the PCI-E solution. Have you noticed any appreciable slowdown in communications via LAN because of this (either internet or home net)?

The IP35 Pro ethernet typically runs 650-700Mb/s versus ~900Mb/s on PCI-E (you don't get the full 1000 even on PCI-E).
However, that is still waaay faster than domestic Broadband & it's faster than a single 7200rpm HDD can handle. Only people with RAID or Raptors may actually notice any difference.

 

[isandu]

Thank you all for your answers, especially NoelS.

Well, mgutz's P35-DS4 review was really useful. The DS4 seems to have poorer cable management (this might be of concern to me since I have a case with a side window ), and it seems to have other shortcommings too. I see that many prefer the ABIT IP35 Pro board, but for me, it is a little too expensive to be worthed. I'm not going to do extreme overclocking after all. I think 400MHz FSB is doable on most P35 boards. If only I could find revision 2.0 of the DS4 board, I would prefer it more to the Asus P5K-E, after reading many user reviews (they seem to consume more power than other boards, some were complaining about SATA issues, booting problems etc)... The eSata port is of no concern to me anyway, since it is controlled by the JMicron chip, which from everything I heard is best to be avoided.

 

[NoelS]

Originally posted by: isandu
Thank you all for your answers, especially NoelS.

Well, mgutz's P35-DS4 review was really useful. The DS4 seems to have poorer cable management (this might be of concern to me since I have a case with a side window ), and it seems to have other shortcommings too. I see that many prefer the ABIT IP35 Pro board, but for me, it is a little too expensive to be worthed. I'm not going to do extreme overclocking after all. I think 400MHz FSB is doable on most P35 boards. If only I could find revision 2.0 of the DS4 board, I would prefer it more to the Asus P5K-E, after reading many user reviews (they seem to consume more power than other boards, some were complaining about SATA issues, booting problems etc)... The eSata port is of no concern to me anyway, since it is controlled by the JMicron chip, which from everything I heard is best to be avoided.

isandu,

You're welcome. These discussions have been valuable for me as well... I couldn't sleep last night thinking about mobos so I got up and went to my computer and finally ordered the ASUS P5K-E because it seemed to have most of what I want in a new board. We'll see soon enough, I guess. If it doesn't work out the way I expect, I'll put it on a shelf and save it for a Grandson later on. Then order the Abit IP35 Pro.

I did read many, many reviews on the P5K-E on Newegg and in spite of some poor ratings, I thought most seemed to be reasonably happy with it. I hope I didn't misjudge what I read. There really wasn't enough on here for me to make a good decision...

I take it you're going to hold out for the DS4 rev. 2.0 board from your comments. I hope you find it and are happy with the decision. When you gt waht you want, come back and let us know what you got and how it worked out. I'll do the same.

Noel

 

[NoelS]

isandu,

Just did a little Googling and found the DS4 rev 2.0 at Newegg... http://www.newegg.com/Product/...-_-GIGABYTE-_-13128064

Can you buy through Newegg? If not, sorry, but just wasn't sure...

Noel

 

[isandu]

Originally posted by: NoelS
isandu,

Just did a little Googling and found the DS4 rev 2.0 at Newegg... http://www.newegg.com/Product/...-_-GIGABYTE-_-13128064

Can you buy through Newegg? If not, sorry, but just wasn't sure...

Noel

No, newegg doesn't ship to my country. I would really love it if you could tell me your opinion on the P5K-E board when it arrives. Some people complained about SATA issues (although they said that actually the cables were faulty, and I haven't heard of this issue recently, so I guess it was fixed), that the software was buggy (I don't know about that, I currently have an ASUS Sk939 board, and the software works fine), and other stuff; it does have some nice features though, like WiFi, vdroop protection, a possibly better integrated sound chip etc. But overall I was left with the impression that DS4 was a better, more stable board.

If it was still at around the the same price as DS4 and P5K-E, I would go for the ABIT IP35 Pro. It seems that most people who tried it are very satissfied with it.

 

[Heidfirst]

Seeing as cost is a concern have you considered the DS3P over the DS4?
There is really very little difference (basically heatsinks) between the 2 & it's quite a bit cheaper (at least here in the UK).

 

[isandu]

I know about DS3P, but it's very hard to find it where I live. Actually, there's just one store that has it in stock that I know of. The price difference between that store and DS4 in other (cheaper) stores is just 10 pounds, not counting shipping tax. So it's really not worth it.
But thanks for the advice anyway.

 

[imported_Eriol]

The problem I've seen with most/all of the Asus boards is that with long video cards (8800 GTX) I'm pretty sure that you lose 2 SATA ports right away due to the card covering them. This is mentioned in almost all reviews of the ASUS boards.

I'm personally waiting for a DS4 myself. I'm sold on it for the great passive cooling alone, though I won't say that the Abit didn't catch my eye.

 

[isandu]

Eriol, from all the reviews I read, I really think that ABIT IP35 PRO is better than the other two. If it was still the same price as DS4, I would get it without hesitation. But in my country it's 40$ more expensive than the DS4 (I checked at dozens of online stores, it's actually even more expensive than P35-DQ6), although I see that on newegg they have approx. the same price...

So, I think I'll get the DS4 next week, together with a Q6600 processor. Hope it's stable enough for me. By the way, does anyone know if this processor can overclock to 2.8GHz with stock cooling? (hope I'll be able to get a G0 SLACR revision) I have 800MHz memory so I want to set the FSB to 400MHz.

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: isandu
Eriol, from all the reviews I read, I really think that ABIT IP35 PRO is better than the other two. If it was still the same price as DS4, I would get it without hesitation. But in my country it's 40$ more expensive than the DS4

Are you in the UK?
At least in the UK the IP35 Pro has held it's selling price remarkably well whereas the DQ6 (& no doubt others) has dropped ~15% since introduction. This is because the IP35 Pro is in so much demand compared to supply.

 

[Noubourne]

I have the P5K Deluxe WiFi and I am ditching it.

This board is the worst I have ever used for overclocking. This board refuses to POST often. It started slowly after about 3 months of usage, and now has been getting more and more frequent. I might have noticed it sooner, but I rarely turn it off.

You cannot fix anything that is potentially wrong if the board refuses to boot into BIOS. I tried messing with my OC settings, which were stable in Windows, but that did not fix it. Then I tried using default settings - except for RAM voltage which I increased to the specs on the RAM - and that didn't fix it either.

This board will not POST, and does not respond to CMOS clears. It is a piece of crap IMO. 30% of Newegg reviews mention similar issues. The ASUS message boards are full of users with the same issue.

I am done with ASUS. I am going back to DFI. It's pricey, but at least their mobos work, and their overclocking features ASSIST you in fixing settings that are unstable for your hardware. Refusing to POST is not an acceptable outcome for any situation, except for a completely dead motherboard.

There is simply no excuse for a board to not boot into BIOS, regardless of what your BIOS settings are. All my hardware passes stress testing in Windows and MemTest/etc. This board is complete crap.

I repeat: THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR A BOARD TO NOT POST!!! Avoid the P5K Deluxe WiFi is my advice.

 

[isandu]

Originally posted by: Noubourne
I have the P5K Deluxe WiFi and I am ditching it.

This board is the worst I have ever used for overclocking. This board refuses to POST often. It started slowly after about 3 months of usage, and now has been getting more and more frequent. I might have noticed it sooner, but I rarely turn it off.

You cannot fix anything that is potentially wrong if the board refuses to boot into BIOS. I tried messing with my OC settings, which were stable in Windows, but that did not fix it. Then I tried using default settings - except for RAM voltage which I increased to the specs on the RAM - and that didn't fix it either.

This board will not POST, and does not respond to CMOS clears. It is a piece of crap IMO. 30% of Newegg reviews mention similar issues. The ASUS message boards are full of users with the same issue.

I am done with ASUS. I am going back to DFI. It's pricey, but at least their mobos work, and their overclocking features ASSIST you in fixing settings that are unstable for your hardware. Refusing to POST is not an acceptable outcome for any situation, except for a completely dead motherboard.

There is simply no excuse for a board to not boot into BIOS, regardless of what your BIOS settings are. All my hardware passes stress testing in Windows and MemTest/etc. This board is complete crap.

I repeat: THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR A BOARD TO NOT POST!!! Avoid the P5K Deluxe WiFi is my advice.

Thanks noubourne, this was helpful. I also read some complaints which said that after some time ASUS boards do not overclock as well as they first did. I find this a little disturbing. This and other complaints, have made me prefer Gigabyte better, though I know no board is perfect.

Heidfirst, lol, no, I don't live in the UK. I did however visit UK for three months, and I really loved it! Lousy weather though, most of the time

 

[isandu]

Sorry to reopen this thread... I want to ask you, what is ASUS Memspeed technology, and does it really make any difference?

I'm waiting for revision 2 of P35-DS4 to become available where I live, wich I was told should happen this week; but I still don't know which of the two is the best board.